Trophy
by Soran Marlovic
Summary: Maybe tortureangst in later chapters. Basically Kouga gets captured by demon slayers and befriends the very slayer who captured him.KogaOOCchanged second genre and rating due to new chappy
1. Prince of Wolves

Bandits.. Thats all they really were. but they instead took, and soiled, the name of demon slayers. Their weapons were mostly made for the kill as many demon slayers were, but a few were merely made for marring into unconsciousness. Humanoid demons and half-breeds were often very popular as pets for some richer, more sadistic humans. They saw demons as either scum or yet another trophy, even if it wasn't them who earned this trophy but bought it from those who did but didn't care. Needless to say, captured demons live far shorter than those with their freedom. Yet there are some, some who do not deserve the relentless torture on their pride as to be captured and paraded around just to demean him. Very few, all of those few not present in this disgusting demon slayer band, recognized the difference that a demon is worthy of enough respect to be let alone. Yet those who have good souls are often portrayed as the diamond in the rough when they are far more in the open than a diamond in a coal mine...  
  
"Spread out to find those trespassers! We cant have anyone marring our name by disrespecting the northern wolf tribe!" Koga was suddenly grabbed from behind as a boa wrapped itself around his left foot.. Je was too fast to let it hit both his feet and incapacitate him so easily. he was faced with a human girl, but Koga was confused at a number of smells on her. her armer and weapons smelled of the demons they were made from and he was infuriated by the smell of already freshly slaughtered wolf demons, but what confused him was that on the numerous cuts she received in her slaughter, she also smelled faintly of demon.. He did not let this distract him so easily "Your gonna wish you never messed with the prince of wolves.." She smiled charmingly..  
  
"Someone's got a high opinion of himself.. I'm sure my father will beat that out of you.. High rank demons are always more popular.. Especially when they are well known.. I hope you have a runner up to run your tribe or we're gonna end up coming back here again to gather up those who managed to escape.." She swung her weapon around as they cornered off.. Before he realized it, Koga was in a full-fledged position.. Somehow he had viewed her as more of a threat than the normal human, even for a demon slayer..  
  
"Well just see. I guarantee your 'father' has already been ripped apart by my comrads.." She grinned sadistically.. "I wouldn't bet on it." she tossed a greenish orb that exploded at his feet and released a powerful poison.. Strong-smelling and paralyzing as well it would do well to incapacitate him.. Koga remembered snarling at her smiling form leaning down to see him crumple while she put on her gas mask similar to those of Sangos demon slayers.  
  
Koga woke up in a cage and with a leather collar around his neck and hanging from the ceiling, preventing him from even touching the bars.. He tried to claw out the leather but found it was an adaptation from a dragon- demons skin. He looked up to take in his surroundings and found the room was near empty save several whips, and a sink. he braced himself for an attack despite his restraints as the door opened.. The girl who captured him walked in. she now wore white makeup over her face and neck, and lipstick and eyeliner around her face.. She wore a pink kimono with pale, pastel blue flowers stitched into the side.. She appeared beautiful, but to a demon such as Koga, natural beauty surpasses the fake, clownish appearances of human women. She walked past Koga without a passing glance..  
  
"why do you hide your face behind that paint?" he felt oddly calm.. His hands across his legs as he sat cross-legged in the center of the cage. She smiled as she washed her hands delicately.. He knew there were defiantly other places to wash up.. She came in here for a reason.  
  
"My father is celebrating your capture and he is already planning on selling you. He likes to see me in make up like my mother was. I have a feeling he will be engaging me to one of his comrades soon anyway. He wants to have a grandson to make up for the 'mistake' of having a daughter. Sometimes I think I am little more of a trophy to him than beings like you are.." Koga scowled darkly..  
  
"Is that what I am to him? A trophy of another victory? Why not just take my head instead of demeaning me with capture?" She sat down beside his cage door, her legs laid delicately beside her.  
  
"Demons of your stature are well known. And a wolf demon especially is popular as a pet. My father will no doubt break you and sell you to the highest bidder. He is a ruthless man. He probably would have sold his own wife into slavery had she not died a year ago. He was angry with her for the longest time because of how she failed birth over and over again and when she finally succeeded it was with a girl instead of a boy." Koga nodded understandingly.  
  
"If a bitch has trouble giving birth it should not be forced on her.. The children of a pack are taken care of equally, whether male or female. Where would we be should it not be for the women who bear our children? Those strong enough to endure childbirth can surely bare arms in battle." she smiled sweetly.  
  
"I wish circumstances were different. You are one of the most intelligent demons I have ever met. and you truly take my words in as if I were one of your own. I respect you greatly for overlooking that prejudice." Koga gasped at himself.. Indeed he had been speaking to this painted up doll of a human as if she were part of his pack.. What was it about her that made him trust her so? Her scent? Her demeanor? He was brought out of his thoughts as he heard the very faint noise of the human hunter presumably the girls father.. It was hard enough for him to hear but somehow she seemed to have heard it as well. she stood up with a sad look..  
  
"I am sorry that I could not speak with you longer. Here." She reached into her long, flowing sleeves and pulled a small bottle of wine. Then pulling a bowl from her bosom and the meat of her dumplings from the dinner held in an ink tube made out of bamboo. She pushed these into the cage and turned to leave. "Don't let him get to you. You are better than that, - prince of wolves." 


	2. Prisoners of the Like

Koga woke as the door to his cage opened. Before he could gather his senses, a large metal cuff was shaped around his neck. The dragon-leather collar provided some comfort, but the hard metal against his skin was sickening to a demon of such pride as he. The cuff was attached to a five- foot pole which was held by a human.. Koga suppressed his triumphant grin as another human reached to untie the leash.. they were very foolish to believe they could hold him, even with that cuff. He prepared to bolt forward and surprise the human as the pole was passed to someone else.. Koga nearly choked by starting a little as he saw who it was passed to.. The girl held the pole sharply, and twisted slightly to the side.. Should he try something as he had planned, the position of the cuff would snap his neck by his own movements.  
  
"Where are you taking me?" She replied to him without looking at him as she lead him forward.  
  
"to showcase." Before he could reply anything, he was blinded by a bright light..He shielded his eyes with his free hands.. Obviously they were using the same technique as the collar, keeping him away from anything he could claw rather than getting close enough to him to bind his hands. He saw shadows in the blind spots of the reflective scales they used to shine lights on him like flashbulbs.. They appeared to be conversing and Koga looked to the girl, who had yet to give him her name. she stared forward determinately, completely unaffected by the light despite the fact the scales shined just as much light at her. He seemed about to say something when the scales were moved away, revealing the humans who had hid behind them..  
  
"He is a fine demon, but he has yet to show any fight.. Your previous captures were far more feisty.. This one seems to just look around with the dumbfounded of a weasel demon." Koga growled softly to himself at their arrogance and insults, but thought better of doing anything.. Not because of the girls position of the cuff, but because from what they were saying, it appeared to be what they were waiting for. Eventually the man left with short condolences to the father of the girl.. he scowled darkly, throwing down a gas bomb as he put his mask on.. Koga found himself losing conscious again, but fought it, almost regretting it a moment later.. The man backhanded Koga and the girl released the cuff, the father throwing Koga against the wall by his neck. Koga, unable to do anything in protest just hung there limply as he took the beatings from the important human..  
  
"You Baka! You were supposed to snarl and try to attack! Ill teach you, you damned demon!" Koga continued to take the blows as he lost consciousness.. He didn't think enough to wonder why but he felt completely betrayed by the girl as she let her father beat him so mercilessly. Even finding himself thinking as he settled into darkness.. "why?"  
  
He found himself back into the cage and his body ached from the beating he had received even after he had lost consciousness. His shirt was repaired from many rips that were in it after his beating and was folded next to him.. He reached his stomach surprised, confirming that he felt a bandage around his stomach.. He had long since healed any wounds but the wound in his stomach had hurt quite a bit even though he had no idea what type of wound it had been.  
  
"Have you slept well? You slept right through the day yesterday." She put down the bowl of water and cloth she had.. Apparently meant to clean any resonant blood. Instead she gave him the bowl. "Are you thirsty?" He threw her a cold stare. She smiled softly in return.. "I'm not surprised you are angry at me.. But you must know there was nothing I could have done. I cant very well sic you on my own father, despite his - distasteful - modes of business."  
  
"You could have warned me." She smiled practically.  
  
"And what would I have said? - oh yes and my father will be brandishing you about to bigoted rich humans. I thought you would have assumed that considering I told you that he sold demons as trophies." He looked over to the side like a spoiled child.  
  
"You could have done something. Let me out and said I escaped." She smiled and shook her head.  
  
"My father would have known what I had done. Ive done it before for a little child demon.. He wouldn't stop crying so I found his parents and led them here to rescue him. I said I had just gone for a walk but my father put two and two together. He beat me more viciously than you for that disobedience." His features softened..  
  
"It sounds as if you are little less a prisoner than me.." She smiled grimly, staring off.  
  
"it really does doesn't it?"

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Nik: hows that for a second chapter? I managed two chapters without a single mention of one of the main characters name. or even the only minor character. and nobody's seemd to notice.


	3. She Wolf

Nik: Forgive me for the mixup. I put it up by accident. See I wrote the first part at home, then finished it at school. Then during study I put it up, forgetting about the second part. In each of my chapters so far the end has been the end of a day in addition to the time Koga was unconsious and when they traveled into the slayers villege. The next chapter will be a continuation of this one however. That is after I finish catching up on my other Inu fic where Kags is insane..

* * *

Koga's ears flicked softly as he caught sounds just beyond his door.. He slowly opened his eyes and listened carefully to the indestinct yelling beyond the wooden door.

"You idiot! We still havent sold our last demon! where are we supposed to put this one?!" there was a soft thud and Koga could hear someone being tossed on the ground. "We havent got any other cages made for an adult demon!" The vassel stammered out a response Koga couldn't make out and then rushed off, his feet making soft tapps against the floor. For a moment, the man outside of the door looked about to enter his cell but then thought better of it, or recalled some errand he had to do, abandoning his previous idea. After about a half hour Koga decided that nothing else would happen and drifted back to sleep, only to be awoken several hours later by someone struggling to open the lock.. Koga looked up to find both Ginto and Hikkaku trying to force open the lock..

"Ginto, Hikakku! What are you two doing here?!" Hikakku spoke as Ginto tried to force the lock. there was yelling outside of the door. "Whats going on out there?"

"The wolves are keeping the humans buisy while we free you Koga. We came looking for you after the dust cleared from when those demon hunters attacked." The door slammed open and the girls father stood there, his face red with anger and probably flushed from alcahol. He held a huge mace and looked about to swing it into Ginto's face as they turned around in surprise. But the human fell to the ground like a felled tree as two wolves jumped on his back, one snapping his spinal chord with a bite to the neck. Ginto finished picking the lock and they undid the clasp on Koga's neck. As Koga lept out of the room he had been kept in for 4 days of that week in captivity, nearly everything was still and he bodies of both wolves and slayers littered the ground. The dirt tainted with blood. But behind one of the buildings, Koga saw the last of the slayers staying off the rest of the wolves. As he watched he saw that the girl was there as well, seemingly leading the otherwise useless group. Since the wolves now had the element of surprise, the slayers were disoriented, and hat was losing them he battle. Koga quickly shot through and grabbed the girl around the waist; her weapon already entwined in the gored body of a wolf. She struggled with Koga uselessly since the arm he held her with had the enhanced strength of a jewel shard. 

As he finally released her, she took a fighting stance and Koga was reminded of that odd cent again because she was now even more wounded than last time. She had murder in her eyes against Koga for separating her from the other slayers. She looked oddly befitting to the serenity around her however, her armor stained with her blood and the blood of both comrade and enemy.

"You have your freedom prince, now let me help my comrades." Koga considered letting her go for a moment, but then caught up quickly and stood in her path. A wolf howled in the distance.

"The slayers are all dead." He dodged a hit from her as she launched out and he pulled her arm away, his face sullen.

"Your slayers were not ready for a sneak attack, were I to leave you there, you would have been killed with them." She paused for a minute before ripping her hand forward and throwing another punch at his chest. Koga was surprised at her strength and released her hand as the wind was knocked out of him. He barely had enough time to dodge as she suddenly came at him. He could have easily halted her assault but was awed at her sudden strength. Her punches and kicks came at lighting speed and for a moment, he believed she had a jewel shard; for, how else could she be so powerful?

Then it hit him. Literally. In this revelation, he had let his guard down and she landed a punch right into his jaw. In a swift movement, he grabbed both her wrists and pinned them behind her back as she still faced him. And as she struggled, he leaned forward and placed his lips on a deep cut on her shoulder.

She froze, their position almost looking like Koga embrace her. The moment lasted years for her and though she knew it was not as it appeared, she couldn't help but feel the intimacy of the situation. As Koga tasted her blood, she felt limp in his hands. And when he realized her, she fell almost gracefully to her knees and sat on her feet, still dazed by the experience. Koga wiped the blood from his lips.

"I knew it. The moment you first fought me, I saw that there was something different about you." She continued to stare blankly at Koga's feet. Koga changed this by sitting down in front of her, and lifting her chin with his hand a reassuring smile.

"You never told me your name." She looked up innocently, like a child, and into his eyes as he asked her. Then pushed his hand away. Her voice was angry, but her eyes didn't change. She couldn't hide it from him.

"Why should I tell you? You killed my family, destroyed my home! Give me one reason why I shouldn't just take out my sword and continue our fight right now." His stare was very intimidating as he looked right into her eyes good-naturedly.

"You showed me compassion, a trait found as rarely in humans as mercy in demons. Those people may have raised you, but they were not your family. And that village may have been your home, but it was not where you belong." She turned away angrily.

"If you're so smart, than why don't you tell me where exactly I do belong?" he smiled sweetly.

"Here."

* * *

Nik: Im obsessed with vampires and the intimacy they share with their victems. Koga may be just tasteing her blood, but to her, his lips on her wound seem to last an eternity, just as I imagine the moment of death to be on the victem of a vampire. 


	4. Wolf in Disguise

She was silent for a moment then looked to the side almost embarrassingly.

"Well that's cute and all but I think you're going a little overboard just because I helped you. My village may be gone but I'm still human. And as far as I've heard, wolf demons are picky about keeping the bloodline strong. You can't very well adopt a human into your group, especially since we aren't used to the way you live." Koga smiled wryly.

"But you aren't human. You're a wolf, just like me." She stood up, starting to walk away.

"This is stupid. I was born to a human mother and father. The possibility of me even being part demon is zero to none with my family." Koga's smile widened as she started to leave between the trees.

"But I already told you. They weren't your family. Haven't you ever wondered why you had so much more sympathy for the demons while your 'family' did not? Or why fighting came so naturally to you? I bet you were handling weapons before most human children were handling toys." She continued walking away, but as Koga's voice lowered to a serious tone, she halted at his words.

"You know, when I tasted your blood. It was not human blood that I felt. Or human blood that I smelled during your battles. You are a demon. And I think you ought to trust me enough by now to tell me your name." She paused, and her breath dew out slowly.

"Tell me yours first." He smiled, knowing that he had finally gotten to her.

"Koga." He nearly fell over with surprise as she turned away again.

"Well then Koga, you're a crackpot.

I know the rules of life in this world. The strong survive. You took your freedom in exchange for the lives of my village. Now leave me in peace so I can at least bury what's left from your dogs." Koga turned red with frustration.

"Don't you get it? You're better than they are! They probably kept you like a pet and your dad started calling you daughter when his wife couldn't bear him a real child!" Koga followed along as she walked back towards the village.

"You are the one who doesn't understand. I don't care what my heritage is. As far as I was raised, I am a human. It's what my mind was developed to be. I can't just find the truth and live like you. It's not how I was conditioned. Even if what you say is true, I don't have the instincts of a wolf. They were weaned out of me like the roving sleeping habits of a baby." Koga gripped her shoulder tightly to stop her and she ripped his hand away, whipping around with a deep sound, identical to a dog's growl. It surprised her, but didn't cut off her train of thought.

"Just leave me alone Koga. I'm not like you, and I never will be. Just accept it." Koga did stop and as he did, pulled her with him. Ignoring her protesting he held her right in front of him.

"Instincts don't lie. And neither would I." With that he closed the distance between them, and as he released her, she stepped back a few steps shyly, half her face covered with her soft black hair... "Whats your name?" She looked up at him, her eyes glinting in the moonlight..

"Rose."

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

Nik: Sorry its shorter than usual, and I decided that since the previous was more romantic, I made this one a little more comical, well... Outside of the ending that is. Anyway, I can really picture Koga heavy sweatdropping cant you? Maybe it's just that visual mind of mine. Anyway, yet another cutesy ending with a one word conclusion. Its just something I like to do. And sorry again for the contusion last chapter. I hope I can get some more reviews for this chappie, and I'd like to thank my one reviewer of the moment since my others probably left since I haven't updated in so long... Hopefully you'll have some company next time..


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